Thursday, January 31, 2008

Thanks to the folks at Things are Good: good news blog for posting this Rick Mercer video on the made-in-Canada ZENN car. (The blog is a great place to get away from all the negative news in the world, BTW.)

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Wolfowitz to head State Department arms control panelJanuary 24 - 6:25 PM ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Ousted World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has been appointed to head a State Department advisory panel on arms control, the department said Thursday.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has named Wolfowitz chairman of her International Security Advisory Board, an 18-member panel that makes recommendations to the State Department on arms control, disarmament, non-proliferation and other issues related to international security.

The board meets quarterly to provide independent advice to Rice and her deputy, John Negroponte, on some of the most urgent foreign policy issues of the day, based on classified intelligence. The board has access to “the resources of all the department’s bureaus and offices at its direction,” the State Department charter says.

There is not even the appearance of doing what is right with this crowd.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The one hope for privacy advocates is Senator Chris Dodd's promise to filibusterany bill that included the telecom immunity provision. Note how the major presidential candidates have been silent on an issue that is of such importance. They're too busy sniping at each other in a "he said, she said" spat.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-led U.S. Senate will approve President George W. Bush's demand that telephone companies that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program receive retroactive immunity from lawsuits, a top lawmaker predicted on Wednesday.

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Yet it remained uncertain if the Senate could reach an agreement with the Democratic-led House of Representatives on such legislation before a surveillance law it would replace expires next week on February 1.

Vice President Dick Cheney joined the fray, saying, "We're reminding Congress that they must act now to modernize FISA," the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, Cheney added, "Those who assist the government in tracking terrorists should not be punished with lawsuits."

Yeah, let's not punish the corporations and executives that were spying on US citizens.

Friday, January 18, 2008

WASHINGTON — R. Nicholas Burns, the State Department's No. 3 official, who oversees daily policy on high-priority issues from Iran to India and the Balkans, announced Friday that he's retiring for personal reasons.

Burns, a longtime confidant of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was the lead U.S. official in rounding up international support for economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. That effort is in trouble because of Chinese and Russian objections to tougher sanctions.

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk about the subject, said Burns' decision to end a 26-year Foreign Service career was based only on personal factors and wasn't a result of policy disputes.

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Nicholas Burns' departure — he leaves in March — nonetheless could leave a temporary hole at the top levels of the State Department as the administration struggles with a host of foreign-policy setbacks.

He and Rice will meet their counterparts from five nations in Berlin next week to discuss further UN sanctions against Iran, but the outcome is in doubt.

Bush also is facing a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, a political crisis in Pakistan, a recalcitrant Russia and a declaration of independence from Serbia by Kosovo that could roil the Balkans again.

As the undersecretary of state for policy, Burns was an advocate of diplomatic solutions to confrontations over nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. He was the target of occasional attacks by hawks within and outside the administration, often taking flak whose real target was Rice.

Poor "condescending" won't have anyone to protect her from flak anymore. Sniff, sniff.

Kinda makes one wonder who's gonna be the last one left on the USS buschco sinking ship, doesn't it ? ? ? ?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

This morning I woke up thinking about how US citizen's votes are tabulated when they are cast overseas. I know, what an exciting thought to awaken to, eh? This train of thought was probably triggered by me watching the dems debate from Las Vegas last night. The only way we were able to view that was by connecting my laptop to our digital TV and stream the video from msnbc.com. This is because we have basic-Basic Cable. (A whole 'nuther story there, but not at this time . . . . ) But I digress.My "queerie" was: "How are the votes tabulated, electoral-college-wise, for those votes cast by people such as ourselves when we vacate the USA for a better 'hood?" Performing a Google search this morning I came across a great site with answers to questions such as this, and just about anything one could need in relation to the topic. Overseas Vote Foundation is a clearing house for all your out of the country voting needs.

Oh, and the answer to my "queerie" above is that your votes are tabulated based upon your last actual residence in the US.

Looks like we'll be stuck in redneck-land for quite some time, voting-wise, anyway . . . .

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Monday it had notified Congress of plans to sell Saudi Arabia bomb-guidance kits as part of a multi-billion-dollar package of advanced arms to Gulf Arab states that officials see as countering growing Iranian military clout._______________The value of the JDAMs is about $120 million, he said. This is part of an overall package of arms proposed to be sold to Gulf states. The deals announced so far amount to about $11.5 billion, said McCormack.

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The official announcement kicks off a 30-day review period during which U.S. lawmakers could move to block the sale. A number of lawmakers have vowed to try and stop it.

The bomb-guidance kits proposed to be sold to Saudi Arabia are built by Boeing Co and turn unguided bombs into precision munitions with built-in satellite and motion-sensing navigation systems.

As discussed earlier, our Israeli buddies are not too happy with this decision.Why do I have the feeling that our wonderful Congress will not do a damn thing to put this on ice? Way too much $$$ involved which translates into political contributions, don't you think?

The more things change . . . .

UPDATE#1: PBS' Newshour reported tonight that State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stated the Saudis deserved the equipment as they had been a great ally in the "war on terror" and were making excellent strides against terrorism.

So.

Just how in hell are bomb-dropping aircraft supposed to be used against the average terrorist?

Update #2: Here's a perk georgie got out of the deal. Must be great to be him, eh?

From inevitability to pitiful failure to front-runner again in just a few days. There’s no hint that the market saw either Iowa or New Hampshire coming, or knew anything beyond the bloviations of the talking heads.(emphasis mine)

After all the "expert" talking heads and pollsters announced what the results would be, the voters had their say.

It appears there is still some semblance of democracy alive in the US.

OTTAWA - Canada's health care system offers "excellent value for the money" says a British researcher who has studied preventable deaths in 19 industrialized nations.

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The study, which looked at figures from 2002-03, updated a similar report based on 1997-98 figures. Its goal was to compare amenable deaths in the United States with 14 western European nations, plus Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

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In the first study, the researchers found that amenable deaths in the U.S. stood at 114.74 per 100,000 population, exceeded only by Ireland, Portugal, Finland and the United Kingdom.

In that time period, Canada's amenable mortality rate was 88.77 -- the seventh-lowest rate after France, Japan, Spain, Australia, Sweden and Italy. In the most recent study, Canada's amenable death rate had dropped to 76.83, putting Canada sixth after France, Japan, Australia, Spain and Italy.

Meanwhile, amenable mortality rates in the U.S. have barely budged from 114.74 to 109.65 in 2002-03, taking the U.S. from 15th place to last place among the 19 countries.

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More importantly, outcomes in Canada are improving more quickly than those in the U.S., he said.

"Given that the U.S health care system is far more expensive, this suggests that Canadians are getting excellent value for money."

Long-time readers of Adbusters may have noticed that we’ve been a little quiet about our ongoing legal battle to break the corporate monopoly on Canada’s broadcast media. It hasn’t been for lack of activity – in fact, some recent and welcome developments suggest that the case is about to pop back up onto the radar.

For those of you not quite up to speed, here’s the gist: After over a decade of having our consumer-awareness TV spots rejected by just about every major commercial broadcaster in North America (often with little or no explanation from the network reps who issued the refusals), we resolved to take our fight to the courts. In 2004, we filed a lawsuit against the government of Canada and some of the country’s biggest media barons, arguing that the public has a constitutionally protected right to expression over the public airwaves.

Following a series of false starts and the inevitable legal complications, the suit was whittled down to two main defendants: the government and CanWest Global Communications, Canada’s largest international media corporation. The case is currently awaiting the resolution of two preliminary motions: one by Adbusters to add the CBC, Canada’s publicly funded national broadcaster, as an additional defendant; the other by CanWest to strike the case before it even proceeds to trial.

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“We all watch television,” offers Dalziel, “and we (as the public) own the television airwaves. The question is, are the public airwaves the modern equivalent of the town square, in which all Canadians are free to express their views? Or can the government parcel the airwaves out to private companies who are free to exclude the rest of us from access, and keep us quiet?”

Having seen what the concentration of media outlets has done in the US, this looks like a case we all should be concerned about . . . .

Extensive data-sharing programs across federal government and with private sector

Spreading use of CCTV

Congress approved presidential program of spying on foreign communications over U.S. networks, e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, etc.; and now considering immunity for telephone companies, while government claims secrecy, thus barring any legal action

No data retention law as yet, but equally no data protection law

World leading in border surveillance, mandating trans-border data flows

Weak protections of financial and medical privacy; plans spread for 'rings of steel' around cities to monitor movements of individuals

Democratic safeguards tend to be strong but new Congress and political dynamics show that immigration and terrorism continue to leave politicians scared and without principle

Lack of action on data breach legislation on the federal level while REAL-ID is still compelled upon states has shown that states can make informed decisions

Recent news regarding FBI biometric database raises particular concerns as this could lead to the largest database of biometrics around the world that is not protected by strong privacy law

Do you feel the same as me? That the Democratic front-runners are a less-than-stellar group of candidates, and that none of them are the "slam dunk" we wish they were? Of course, there are wonderful things about each of them. Any one of them would be infinitely better than what we have now. Personally, Congressman Kucinich, more than any other candidate, shares the same positions that I have on the issues (although the UFO that picked me up would only take me as far as Kalamazoo). But let's not waste time talking about Dennis. Even he is resigned to losing, with statements like the one he made yesterday to his supporters in Iowa to throw their support to Senator Obama as their "second choice."

So, it's Hillary, Obama, Edwards -- now what do we do?

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And yet, I am sad to say, nothing has disappointed me more than the disastrous, premeditated vote by Senator Hillary Clinton to send us to war in Iraq. I'm not only talking about her first vote that gave Mr. Bush his "authorization" to invade -- I'm talking about every single OTHER vote she then cast for the next four years, backing and funding Bush's illegal war, and doing so with verve. She never met a request from the White House for war authorization that she didn't like. Unlike the Kerrys and the Bidens who initially voted for authorization but later came to realize the folly of their decision, Mrs. Clinton continued to cast numerous votes for the war until last March -- four long years of pro-war votes, even after 70% of the American public had turned against the war. She has steadfastly refused to say that she was wrong about any of this, and she will not apologize for her culpability in America's worst-ever foreign policy disaster. All she can bring herself to say is that she was "misled" by "faulty intelligence."

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Barack Obama is a good and inspiring man. What a breath of fresh air! There's no doubting his sincerity or his commitment to trying to straighten things out in this country. But who is he? I mean, other than a guy who gives a great speech? How much do any of us really know about him? I know he was against the war. How do I know that? He gave a speech before the war started. But since he joined the Senate, he has voted for the funds for the war, while at the same time saying we should get out. He says he's for the little guy, but then he votes for a corporate-backed bill to make it harder for the little guy to file a class action suit when his kid swallows lead paint from a Chinese-made toy. In fact, Obama doesn't think Wall Street is a bad place. He wants the insurance companies to help us develop a new health care plan -- the same companies who have created the mess in the first place. He's such a feel-good kinda guy, I get the sense that, if elected, the Republicans will eat him for breakfast. He won't even have time to make a good speech about it.

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(John) Edwards is the only one of the three front-runners who has a universal health care plan that will lead to the single-payer kind all other civilized countries have. His plan doesn't go as fast as I would like, but he is the only one who has correctly pointed out that the health insurance companies are the enemy and should not have a seat at the table.

I am not endorsing anyone at this point. This is simply how I feel in the first week of the process to replace George W. Bush. For months I've been wanting to ask the question, "Where are you, Al Gore?" You can only polish that Oscar for so long. And the Nobel was decided by Scandinavians! I don't blame you for not wanting to enter the viper pit again after you already won. But getting us to change out our incandescent light bulbs for some irritating fluorescent ones isn't going to save the world. All it's going to do is make us more agitated and jumpy and feeling like once we get home we haven't really left the office.

On second thought, would you even be willing to utter the words, "I absolutely believe to my soul that this corporate greed and corporate power has an ironclad hold on our democracy?" Because the candidate who understands that, and who sees it as the root of all evil -- including the root of global warming -- is the President who may lead us to a place of sanity, justice and peace.

Tomorrow night's Iowa caucuses will be media-hyped to death, but perhaps an indication of where the US is heading will be revealed.

One can only hope it is back towards personal liberties and the rule of law after the last seven years of neither . . . .